Comments on: Horror Roundtable - Week Eighty-Three

By: JA

JA — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 02:11:34 +0000

I’m an italicized “somebody”! Yay! My mother would be so proud.

By: Sam J. Miller

Sam J. Miller — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 04:24:37 +0000

hands down it’s gotta be King Kong for me - the original, of course, because he’s the most human character in the movie. A couple years ago i saw it on 35mm on the big screen, in a theater packed with kids, and for most of the movie they were all laughing and talking about how bad the special effects were, but i swear to god, in that last scene, those little fuckers were ALL crying.

an underdog runner-up is Gwangi, in “the valley of Gwangi.” amazing harryhausen special effects, and one very kick-ass magenta allosaur.

By: Jeff Allard

Jeff Allard — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 13:27:04 +0000

Well, just to represent the “loves giant monsters/didn’t love Cloverfield” contingent, I have to say that shaky, low-angle glimpses of a below par (to my eyes) CGI monster don’t particularly do it for me. But for those that love it - more power to you!

As for giant monster movies I do like, I’ll go with some big bug action with Them! and Starship Troopers. Them! never failed to freak me out as a kid whenever it aired on the 4 O’Clock Movie - just that chirping sound the ants made would send me scurrying out of the room. And Starship Troopers is just flat-out amazing. Hordes of alien insects never looked so good. And that big brain sucker at the end was repulsive enough to give me nightmares.

By: Ivan Lerner

Ivan Lerner — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 02:54:15 +0000

Horror Blog:
Like everybody, I love Godzilla and King Kong (although Jackson’s Kong film left me very cold–I couldn’t finish watching it, turning it off mid-dino-rampage).

But, Attack of the Crab Monsters is my personal favorite giant monster flick–some can’t get past the bad acting and awful effects, but I have been incredibly willing to suspend my disbelief for this movie ever since I was a kid, and it was on heavy rotation on NYC’s old Metromedia Channel 5.
With Corman’s nonstop atmosphere of dread, and the movie’s lightning pacing, those talking crabs *freaked* me out. I just couldn’t let go of the thought that if the atomic crabs ate your brain (ewww!), then they’d absorb your memories and personality. And when I was a kid, I thought that it meant that the crabs would steal your soul, too.

And this movie is fast! Only about 65 minutes long! I have a copy of Charles Griffith’s original script; Corman cut out about 20 pages; not that I blame him, it was mushy romance crud, and had it been left in, I don’t think the movie would still have its fans.

Jeff, if I may cross-talk, I think why Them! (which is another fave) completely holds up after all these years is because it’s primarily a good, well-acted police procedural. We’ve got decent, hard-working lawmen and forensics experts trying to stop an evil criminal enterprise. It just *happens* to be giant radioactive ants, that’s all…

(BTW, My stepdad and I used to watch Them! whenever it was on TV, and for the next week after, he’d randomly shout “Make me a sergeant, charge the booze!” like the geezer in the nuthouse. )

One monster movie that tends to get overlooked, I feel, is Rodan. I really want to see a deluxe DVD of this movie. Others (whom I can’t remember now…sorry…) have noted that Rodan starts as a mystery, becomes a horror movie, and so on, bouncing between genres (romance, war movie, kaiju, tragedy, etc.), and that it’s this switching gears that keeps Rodan fresh.

Finally, Godzilla: Final Wars is highly recommended–yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s a remake of Destroy All Monsters and Godzilla Vs. Monster Zero, but gee-whiz: it’s got *every* Toho monster in it, and it even manages to be post-modern, commenting on Gamera and the rotten American Godzilla movie.
And I won’t start on the high quality of the most recent batch of Gamera films–which, if you look closely at the effects, somewhat predate Cloverfield: Gamera’s effects are usually shot from “street” level creating a more “realistic” camera angle–as opposed to Eiji Tsuburaya/Toho, who around the 1960s starting shooting everything at “chest” level. I liked Cloverfield, and I may even go see it again in a theater. I hope the Cloverfield DVD has a gorier version, though.

Thanks for letting blab! This is a great site, and I’ve always enjoyed visiting it,
–Ivan

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 03:28:51 +0000

Thanks, Ivan. That’s nice of you to say.

One of my New Year’s resolutions was to wade through every Godzilla feature (and most of the tangential films of the Godzilla mythos, like Mothra and Rodan), but a project I’m working on with Roundtable member Doug Nagy is taking up most of my viewing time. So instead I’ve mostly been bouncing around the different films based on my mood.

I started watching Godzilla: Final Wars with a group of friends and we loved it, but we had to cut the screening short. Unfortunately, I promised that we would pick it up again at a later date, but I couldn’t resist and I peeked at a few scenes. Then I felt guilty and turned it off. I’ve really got to get them all back over here.

I’ve heard great things about the Gamera series, and I really enjoyed GMK so I imagine it would be up my alley. I should really get on that.

By: Jeff Allard

Jeff Allard — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 06:10:24 +0000

Hey Ivan,
I totally agree with your thoughts on Them! - it’s definitely set-up with a strong “real world” vibe to it. It never seems campy like some of its atomic age contemporaries, like Tarantula. And I’m with you on Godzilla: Final Wars, too - although I think enjoying it completely depends on whether or not you grew up with the Godzilla films of the ’70s.

By: Ivan Lerner

Ivan Lerner — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 01:18:52 +0000

Jeff & Steve:
Thanks for the kind words. And Jeff, I think you might be right about Godzilla: Final Wars–that and that last batch* of Toho’s Godzilla “reimaginings” really appealed to me as a fan of the 1960s Big G. (when he was still villainous–somewhat–but usually fighting something much worse). Most of the 1960s Japanese SF output was on heavy rotation on NY TV in the 1970s and early-1980s, when I was maximizing televised sensory input. (Go to dvddrive-in-dot-com, and look for the “NY TV Monster Movie Memories” tag: there are some phenomenally well-researched articles there!)

*= after checking Barry’s Temple of Godzilla (godzillatemple-dot-com), I see there’s been several reimaginings of Godzilla–and a batch of “new” Godzilla flicks I haven’t seen…I hate to say it, but I think I’d rather watch Godzilla: Final Wars again, fast-forwarding through the stuff I don’t like.

Keep up the good work!
–Ivan

By: warren @ 150 days

warren @ 150 days — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 01:28:20 +0000

Yeah! Starship Troopers!!

Plus King Kong Lives in the 80’s where the Kongs are in love!

By: lancifer

lancifer — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 03:43:31 +0000

I have always had a soft spot for GODZILLA VS. THE SMOG MONSTER. It’s one of the very first movies I saw in a theater and it has a great theme song in the psychedelic “Save the earth”! The image of smoggy flying over a school and folks just plopping down dead afterwards was scary and strangely satisfying to me.